Renovated North End Palm Beach Regency brings $5.2 Million

A loggia overlooks the lushly landscaped pool area at 642 N. County Road, which was just purchased by a Florida limited liability company. Photo by RobertStevens.com, courtesy of Brown Harris Stevens.

A Delaware entity with a link to longtime energy executive and attorney J. Barclay Collins II has sold a four-bedroom house at 642 N. County Road for a recorded $5.175 million.

A Florida limited liability company named ABMF PB LLC bought the Palm Beach Regency-style house, which was built in 1988 but renovated in 2006. With 5,556 square feet of living space, inside and out, the house stands on a lot measuring a third of an acre, seven streets south of the Palm Beach Country Club.

Agent Ashley Copeland of Brown Harris Stevens listed it for sale in June 2014. It was priced at just under $5.5 million when it went under contract at the end of November, according to records in the local multiple listing service.

Copeland declined to comment, but her sales listing described the property as a “majestic Regency home, perfect for entertaining.” The house features impact-resistant windows and doors, marble floors, a limestone fireplace and a pool area with a veranda.

Agents Sylvia James and Pat McInerney of The Fite Group acted on behalf of the Florida limited liability company that bought the property. State records list the authorized representative of the company as attorney Alan J. Garfunkel of Scarsdale, N.Y. He couldn’t be reached, and no other information about the buyer was available. McInerney declined to provide specifics of the deal but said she did not expect her clients to replace the house with something new.

“It’s a beautiful house, and it just fit their needs perfectly,” said McInerney.

The property last changed hands for about $4 million in 2008, records show.

The seller is identified on the deed as North King County LLC with an address at 244 Via Las Brisas, a house in Phipps Estate on the near North End. That house, in turn, is owned by a trust for which Collins serves as trustee. The Phipps Estate house last changed hands in 2014, when it was sold for a recorded $8 million by the estate of the late Patricia Haig, widow of former Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig Jr. Copeland acted for the buyer in that deal opposite Sotheby’s International Realty agent Kim Raich.

At that time, Collins was not linked in public records to the Las Tres Brisas Trust, which bought the house from the Haig estate. But in January, he was identified as its trustee when the house’s ownership underwent an internal transfer.

Collins is a former executive vice president and general counsel of Hess Corp., the New York-based energy company. He has ties to Sharon, Conn., according to a biographical sketch on the website of The Garden Conservancy, where he is a board member. He also serves as chairman of the board of directors of the United Hospital Fund of New York and heads the board of trustees of Connecticut’s Mystic Seaport.

The deed for the North County Road house was recorded Feb. 18 by the Palm Beach County Clerk’s office.